Honda to Build New Factory

[Human]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060515/bs_af...co_060515232639

 

TOKYO (AFP) - Honda Motor has decided to build a new factory in North America at an estimated cost of 50 billion yen (452 million dollars), with operations expected to start in 2009, a report said.

 

The facility would be Honda's sixth in North America and the first built there by Japan's third-largest automaker since 2001, when a factory opened in the US state of Alabama, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said.

The plant would initially produce about 150,000 vehicles per year, which would account for nearly 10 percent of the automaker's North American sales, the business daily said, without citing sources.

Honda sold about 1.66 million vehicles there in 2005, up six percent on the year and representing roughly half of worldwide sales, it said.

 

Honda has five auto plants in North America: two in Ohio and one each in Alabama, the Canadian province of Ontario and the Mexican state of Jalisco.

While the location for the new facility has not yet been decided, Honda will likely build it near an existing plant, the Nihon Keizai said.

Officials at Honda were not immediately available for comment.